CHAPTER ONE

Simon POV

I was going to do it. I was going to ask Annabeth Chase out. Yes, the Annabeth Chase.

She was one of the best girls in our grade. She was smart- but not nerdy, Athletic- not a jock, and

Drop dead gorgeous. She had beautiful blonde hair that hung around her in princess curls, long athletic legs, a natural Californian tan, and stormy grey eyes. She was literally everyone's dream girl, the perfect amount of everything. I knew several guys who had a crush on her, heck, even the best-looking guy, Jack Hatte, the guy every single girl crushed on (Not Annabeth though) had the biggest ginormous crush on her.

He had asked her out once, and I saw it. He had dressed his best (Several girls drooled over him) and was incredibly polite to everyone in Annabeth's line of vision. He had asked her out at the end of gym, and she hadn't even batted an eye. Nope. Absolutely no. That was the answer. Then he tried to kiss her, to prove that he was the one for her, and let me tell you, it wasn't pretty. He came back to school a week later with his arm in a sling and crutches.

Since then, many guys have asked her out. Most of them end up in the hospital (little too extreme) and the rest have been walking around with what they call "broken heart".

As for me, I am certain that I, Simon Black, am the one meant for her. I am positive that the reason she rejected everyone was because she had been thinking about her one true love, me. I mean, she has been staring at me a lot these days. I have been her friend for a long time, and we were pretty good. I was one of the only guys she ever befriended in here. I don't know much about her past, but I'm sure that she will pour it all out to me, once we start dating.

It was August eighteenth, and something told me it was an incredibly good day to ask her out.

I smiled imagining the looks of the faces of every guy here when I walk in tomorrow, hand in hand with Annabeth. Maybe I'll even kiss her.

It was a Friday. The next day was a holiday (Saturday) which meant I could spend my weekend hanging out with Annabeth as her boyfriend. I had a study date with her tomorrow as part of our Greek Mythology class.

Which meant I could visit her home and even get to know her parents? You know, the traditional boy meets girlfriend's parents' thing.

I visualized the next few moments in my head. I would walk over to Annabeth and start a conversation with her. Then I would slowly steer the topic towards dating and I would, very casually, ask her, "Oh Hey Annabeth, How about we date? Can I ask you out?" very casually, as though the idea had just popped up in my head. And then she would just stare at me and laugh. "Oh my God, Simon. I thought you'd never ask." And then she would tell me how I was always the one she dreamed of, and how she had secretly liked me. I would just smile and kiss her, on her lips, and she would kiss back and she would mumble "I can't believe my dream is finally coming true". I would just smile and deepen the kiss. Then I would take her home, while all the boys who lingered around would watch me in amazement.

Annabeth sat near the school gates, reading a book on Greek Architecture. I watched her, not in a stalkers way, but the way the sun made her curls look like gold….

I watched her for some time and then walked to her. She looked incredibly happy for some reason.

"Hey Annabeth" I called, when I was close enough in earshot. This was sort of far.

She looked up and smiled. "Hey" She said before returning to her book.

We both just stood in awkward silence for some time. I needed to ask her out, but now looking at her, I could feel all the courage drain out of me. I stuttered a little. Courage I told myself.

I was about to go and ask her out, when an old van pulled up in front of the school and parked in front of the gates.

I was too confused to do anything.

Why on Earth (I almost wrote Why in Hades, because I was so used to saying that and then I remembered that this guy is a clueless mortal) would an old van pull up in front of our school? It read Delphi Strawberry service. Why would our school need strawberries? I mentally checked myself if we had any event that required strawberries in the near future. There were none. Were the cafeteria cooks finally going to cook something real?

Everyone chatting in the grounds had stopped and eyed this van as well, as curious as me. Annabeth just looked up from her book, smiled at the truck, shook her head and went right back into the book. Almost like she had personal experience with Delphi strawberry service.

Out of the van came 5 teenagers that looked about my age. Three guys and two girls. They were all smiling

The first one was tall and very well built; he had black hair and sea green eyes. He was hot. Like really hot. His smile just about had every lady swooning in front of him. I could bet that most of the girls had already given up on Jack and was crushing on this new guy. I sort of felt like he was giving of a bad vibe, especially to me.

The second guy was a close second. He was tall and well built as well. He had blonde close cropped hair and sky-blue eyes. He had a scar on his upper lip, like he had (Attempted to) eat something sharp.

He had his arm around a girl's waist. She was extremely pretty, but she was no match for Annabeth. She had choppy brown hair and these eyes that changed color every time she blinked. She looked sort of Cherokee. (I had done research on them for a project a few months back. They were pretty interesting. Did you know that Tristan Mclean, the famous Sparta actor was Cherokee?). I think they were dating.

The third guy was younger than all of them. He was fourteen or something. He had olive skin, black hair and dark eyes that reminded you of the sea. He was good-looking, but something told me he would nearly murder you if you mentioned that, or even cute. He was an emo type to me

The second girl looked more mature than anybody else in the group. She was the punk sort of kid. She had the same sky-blue eyes as the blonde kid and dark black hair. She had a silver tiara on her head. Something told me never to get on her bad side. I guessed that the blonde kid was her brother. (Please tell me you have figured out who all they are by now. )

I watched them. They got off chatting, laughing and generally having a very fun time. The blonde said something to Green-eyes (That's what I'm calling him until I figure out his name.) and Green-eyes laughed before getting a serious look on his face.

They entered the school gate and EmoBoy grumbled about something. Cherokee girl said something to him and slapped his back and he grumbled again. Green eyes got caught up in this and started laughing and cracking jokes (That guy has ADHD or something. He's always distracted). Blondie said something to Greeneyes urgently. Probably "We're here for a reason, and that's not fooling around"

Greeneyes nodded and stepped up into the school. His eyes scanned around the whole place before the landed on something. A girl. My girl. He smiled and started walking up to her, the entire group following.

I was outraged. Who is he? Landing on the school, deciding to flirt with a (taken) girl and get away. Before I could get to her, he reached. They started talking.

Greeneyes was flirting with Annabeth. It was pretty obvious to anyone. The others were just watching and occasionally laughing. But that's not what made me outraged. Annabeth was laughing and flirting back. She had actually closed her book and stood up. They started talking/flirting.

I could get wisps of their conversation but they made no sense whatsoever. "Percy…Seaweed brain…..camp….monsters…..war….home…..Leo" I was beginning to see red. Who is that guy? I was about to go over there but then I saw something that literally froze me. Literally.

Greeneyes kissed Annabeth.

I decided that Annabeth could handle this. I had seen what she did to anybody who kissed her. I relaxed and waited for her to slap him, or maybe something more, enough for his friends to drag him into the car and go to the hospital.

Then I saw.

Annabeth was kissing back. Her hands were around his neck, book on the floor and she was kissing back with all her strength. If possible, his grip on her waist tightened. They were French kissing each other like there was no tomorrow. Finally SilverTiara yelled "Get a Room People" and they stopped. I was sort of relieved. They broke apart but still staring into each other and Greeneyes kissed Annabeth forehead delicately before stepping back.

I had enough of this. I stormed over and started shouting at Greeneyes. "Who do you think you are? Kissing my girl?"

Annabeth glared at me and coughed. "Simon, this is my Boyfriend, Percy Jackson. And these are Thalia Grace (SilverTiara), Piper Mclean (McLean? Like Tristan Mclean? Cherokee Girl), Jason Grace (Blondie. They were siblings) and Nico Di Angelo (EmoBoy). And guys, this is Simon, you know, the ked we all thought was….?", she looked at them and they nodded. Her voice took on a cold tone. "I'm not your girl. I'm not anybody's girl." I gulped. You do not want to meet Angry Annabeth.

"But what has he ever done for you. I love you, and I would take care of you much better than this scumbag ever could." I shouted. A wave of anger passed through Percy's eyes and it darkened. He stepped forward.

"I have done a lot more for her than you for sure. She's been with me for the past two years. Before that we were friends for 5 years, since we were twelve. On multiple occasions, I've saved her from death. ON multiple occasions she's saved me from death. We were together through most of her darkest times, though I'm sorry I wasn't with her when she was seven. Now she's my life. I love her."

Annabeth stepped forward and took her hand in his. "Love you too" She said and gave him a light kiss. He smiled and relaxed.

I looked at Annabeth. "He'll dump you the first chance he gets." I said. Percy looked ready to pummel the life out of me. Annabeth held him back. Her expression said I'll handle this.

Annabeth looked at me. "I'm sorry Simon. I always loved Percy; I didn't know you actually had feelings for me. We were friends and I would like it to be nothing more. He'll never leave me". Percy nodded.

I felt anger rise up but kept it down for now. I knew that Percy was faking his love. He would use her and then throw her away and leave her broken hearted. It was pretty obvious to me. But now was not the time to mention it, I decided. Maybe the study dates?

Thalia stepped forward. "Icky binky romance. Yuck. Eww. Let's get home, and you can do whatever you want to in the bedroom, while I play some video games. Let's get going." She said and grabbed them both by their shoulders to the car. Jason and Piper followed.

Nothing to do, I walked to my car and started following them. They went to the heart of Manhattan, before stopping at a small apartment. They got out and I heard Percy say something like, "Rented the van for today. Return it to camp tomorrow, Prius flat tire". All of them walked in laughing.

With a start I realized that this was the same house I had to come tomorrow for the study date. So they were all in Annabeth's house, huh?

I wonder if their parents knew.